In 1956, when I was one year old, mom and dad bought their first home, at 1517 Cherokee Lane in Ottawa. It was in a brand new subdivision called Tomahawk Terrace on the south side of town next to the cornfields. The house was a modest brick ranch with two bedrooms and one bathroom on a corner lot.

A couple weeks after moving in, mom’s folks came for dinner. Dad and grandpa were standing outside admiring the property, when my grandpa said “Well Bill, if you don’t mind my asking, how much did you pay for this house?” Dad answered “Nah, George, I don’t mind telling you. It was $12,000.”

“HOOOLEEEY JEEEEEZ!” Grandpa shouted. “Where’d you get that kind of money!?”

Dad told me the story years later, probably about the time Cathy and I were buying our own first home in ‘89 (it was a bit more than $12,000). We had a pretty good chuckle over the price, and grandpa’s reaction.

Mom and dad raised me, along with my sisters Roberta and Tanya, in that two bedroom ranch. They refinanced a couple of times along the way and added a garage, and eventually a family room, which served as my room for several years. Around 1970, they closed the garage in, and turned the front half into a bedroom for me.

Eventually the three of us kids married, and moved on, while mom and dad remained on Cherokee Lane. There were wonderful family get togethers over the years. Somehow they’d fit 30 or more people in for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Immediate family, relatives, friends, and neighbors would gather and it was always a great mix of people, love and laughter.

In 1996, dad had a stroke and was in the hospital for a week. Before we could bring him home, we had to make some modifications to the house, including adding a shower to the bathroom.

I’d never really thought about it before. All those years growing up, the five of us shared the one bathroom with a bathtub and no shower. I kept thinking about it, and finally said to mom “Why didn’t you have a shower put in when you built the house? It would have been an easy thing to do.”

She looked at me straight faced and answered “Your father and I talked about it at the time, but putting in a shower was going to add $34 dollars to the price, and we were just afraid it was going to make the mortgage too high.”

….silence…..

And then we both burst out laughing. Between the laughs mom said, “I know it seems silly now, but it’s true. Money was tight and we just didn’t see how we could afford anything more.” It gave us some comic relief during a stressful time.

$34 dollars….. It’s hard to go out to dinner for $34 these days.

Dad passed away nine years ago, and mom died in 2017. Since then, my sister Tanya and our brother-in-law Shawn moved into 1517 Cherokee Lane. They’ve updated the house and made it their own. When I saw it last, I marveled at the changes and upgrades they made. The good news is, they didn’t have to add a shower. That 63 year old house is still going strong.

Addendum: Thanks to Roberta and Tanya for reviewing and adding to this blog. I have the best sisters in the world.